from 1806 to 1851 121

the river breaks through the Catoctin Mountain, one of the
ridges of the Alleghany, or part of the Blue Ridge, more prop-
erly. There is not room enough for both routes between the
river and the foot of the mountain, and neither can take any
other course without enormous expense. The canal has the
oldest charter, but the railroad located first on this particular
spot. The chances of decision are thought to be about even;
I incline to think they preponderate a little in our favor.³⁴

In the United States Circuit Court twelve years
later, Taney, then Chief Justice, replying to ad-
dresses of the bar on Judge Buchanan's death,
took occasion to say:

during the whole of this long period [of the acquaintance of
the two] we were intimate and cordial friends, cherishing for
each other a warm attachment and respect, and it is a great
consolation to me now to recollect that during the whole of that
time, no word of unkindness ever passed between us: and that
amid the exciting conflicts which unavoidably arise in courts of
justice, and which sometimes try the tempers of the coolest and
most forbearing, and amid the still stronger excitements which
have arisen out of public concerns, there never was one moment
of unkind feeling between us—nor a moment in which either of
us would not have rendered to the other the best service it was
in his power to afford.³³

And the Chief Justice spoke of the kindness of
heart and the great legal attainments of Judge
Buchanan. Reverdy Johnson, at the same meet-
ing, placed emphasis on Judge Buchanan's "judi-
cial courtesy"; and that is a quality he appears
to have had in a high degree. He was one of the
extensive farmers, his land lying in Washington
County.

When Judge Buchanan died, in 1844, Judge
Stevenson Archer, of Harford County, after a

34. Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, Boston, Little, Brown
& Co., 1903, XVII, 513.

35. 7 Law Reporter (old series), 400.